Financial SMS Engagement Strategies, Tips and Tricks

The financial world has been revolutionized many times. Now, SMS is taking the wheel. The world’s top SMS campaigns are booming, and business providers are offering unprecedented levels of detail and personalization with every text.

Now, financial information can be sent via mobile in safe, accessible environments. Mobile Marketer has covered several such programs, diving into the cogs operating beneath the business powerhouses responsible for industry growth. Securing financial information and advice via SMS isn’t difficult, but a few barriers must be hurdled first.

Below are the dynamics of secure financial SMS platforms. Check them out, dissect your own strategy and find out how to create a stellar financial SMS platform:

Use Online Services to Link Directly

Mobile marketers are utilizing online directories to power SMS services, and for good reason. Online directories, assuming they’re secure, are excellent resources for off-platform SMS pushes. In particular, mortgage companies are known for tying such services into their regular provisions.

Users need only go online, depict their needs, integrate with the company name and receive secure, location-based text messages. If you’re trying to integrate a sound financial notification service into your SMS strategy, take a page from their book.

Such programs, mostly conducted by North American issuers, are designed to highlight a user’s financial performance while enhancing their payment experience. By alerting cardholders with real-time data and assisting with real-time transaction services, providers can send information in mere seconds, rather than hours. Such a quick platform is conducive to safety, as account records are sent instantaneously over a secure network, as opposed to being sent days after initial catalog.

Consumers maintaining a financial account through your online brand should be able to query about transactions immediately. Every SMS push should contain relevant contact information. It should also give a brief, step-by-step instruction set to coordinate users in the event of confusion.

Of course, Internet and telephone transactions should be monitored by an intelligent, effective staff. Any transaction amounts exceeding a user’s account should be flagged for notification.

Implement Behavior-Based Notifications

The modern mobile marketing world has totally reinvented text-based alerts. Now, cardholders, website warriors and brand enthusiasts can garner value through behavior-centric SMS campaigns. Your customers, too, should benefit from such offers. In the financial realm, behavior-based services can be used to depict unusual behavior, risky spending or even potential fraud.

Utilize analytics to pinpoint consumer segments. Then, divide them based upon spending habits. If your platform strictly provides financial “advice,” implement a push-based system engaged by unusual spending. In doing so, your customers will receive texts when one of many pre-defined “barriers” is crossed. When unusual e-commerce behavior trips your brand’s engagement system, the consumer will be notified.

Keep Track of Spending Levels and Use Push Notifications

In similar spirit, ensure your consumers are comfortable at every turn by monitoring spending levels. Consumers with online e-commerce accounts within your brand will thank you. When possible, let them verify transaction details. Similarly, engage them throughout their typical buying routine.

A common example of spending level tracking is Visa’s 2007 initiative. Beginning as an internal employee pilot, Visa’s expenditure-tracking program soon engaged users with mobile alerts.

Mobile alerts are unique in their ability to bypass SMS systems altogether. They’re secure, and they’re capable of presenting important information without sacrificing security. Even as an internal system, a push notification center can greatly enhance your financial strategies. They, along with QR-code check-in benefits, keep the consumer secure while offering amazing utility.

Mobile technology is a modern powerhouse of information retrieval and presentation. While many mobile strategists struggle with maintaining privacy, privacy is entirely possible. Remember: As the provider, it’s your responsibility to ensure total safety and transparency. Your users trust you, so give them reasons to trust you more.